V&A Dundee like a ‘crushed car park and framed by ugliest modern buildings’ but is still world-class, says bizarre BBC review

On one hand, Arts Editor Will Gompertz says it looks like a “crushed municipal car park, and is framed by some of the ugliest modern buildings I’ve ever seen”.

On the other, he calls it “terrific” and “world-class”.

He wrote: “Sitting opposite me on the train to Dundee was a 30-something woman and her son. As we crossed the Tay Rail Bridge she turned to her child and said wistfully, ‘it’s great to be going back to Dundee’.

“He looked up at her wise face, blinked once or twice, and said, ‘No it’s not. It’s rubbish’.

“A lively conversation then ensued between the two who traded pros and cons about Scotland’s fourth-largest city, before the mother finally brought matters emphatically to a close by saying, ‘You’ve never been to Maidstone!’

“A bit random, I thought. And unnecessary. There is no need for put downs of Kentish towns.

“Dundee has a new star attraction that should win over even the most entrenched naysayers.

“Admittedly, it cost £80.1m, looks like a crushed municipal car park, and is framed by some of the ugliest modern buildings I’ve ever seen. And yet – and despite years of difficulties and political turmoil – the V&A Dundee is terrific.

“I’ll go further, it is world class.

“The first purpose-built design museum in Scotland is itself an instant design classic.”

Writers, photographers and bloggers from across the UK have had their say on the £80 million design museum, which has been more than a decade in the making.

The Times’ Jonathan Morrison gave the museum three stars in his review, stating that “there can be little doubt that it has already become a symbol of the city’s much-talked-up renaissance as surely as the Guggenheim in Bilbao drew tourists into that Basque port”.

He adds: “That the new outpost of the quintessentially London brand — the first design museum in Scotland, no less — has already been embraced by taxi drivers, chip-shop customers and SNP ministers, and is fondly referred to as “V & Tay” in honour of the dark river it overhangs, is no less than remarkable considering its history.”

Some of the displays in the galleries at V&A Dundee.

Though taking issue with some aspects of the V&A’s exterior, Morrison says Kuma has designed an “icon” and concludes: “It’s unlikely that the new building will prove anything less than a consummate cultural success.

First glimpse of V&A Dundee this morning at the press launch – featuring our beautiful Mackintosh Oak Room interior. Philip Long, Director of @VADundee said ".. the object I am most proud of in the interior of the museum is the restored Oak Room…" https://t.co/qOR8LARxbjpic.twitter.com/Kl03yFhYUT